Istanbul-Bergen declaration on Humanitarian Justice

In the lead up to the International Humanitarian Studies Association conference of 2025 in Istanbul and Bergen, and during one of the most turbulent years in humanitarian history, humanitarian observatories in 8 crisis-affected areas: Central and Eastern Europe, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Latin America and the Caribbean, Libya, Namibia, the Philippines, and South Asia engaged in a process to develop a definition and agenda for humanitarian justice. 

The Observatories held consultations with affected communities and other stakeholders. These resulted in area-specific reports, that were collectively developed into this declaration, launched in Istanbul on 16 October 2025.  

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Methodology

The Istanbul-Bergen Declaration on Humanitarian Justice was developed over a 10 month period, in collaboration with the Humanitarian Observatories and based on participatory fieldwork that took place in 8 contexts: Namibia, Libya, Palestine, the Philippines, Colombia, India, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ukraine. Initial methodology development took place over the course of a 1-day workshop, attended by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre team, and Observatory coordinating teams. Full ethical approval for this process was sought and granted by Erasmus University Rotterdam.

The Humanitarian Observatories in each context then tailored the following methodology to be most appropriate to their context:

1) An open ideation workshop/brainstorm, to map initial key themes, identify FGD participants and questions, and identify context-specific principles

2) Focus Group Discussions with community members: each Observatory coordination team convened two Focus Groups, with 8-10 participants each, to discuss Humanitarian Justice in relation to context. The exact makeup of each Focus Group was slightly different depending on the context, including people from affected communities, people working in local, national, and international humanitarian organisations, people working for rights-based organisations, academics/researchers, community organisation representatives, and so on. In each FGD, invitations were targeted to try and ensure a diversity of life experiences, ages, and viewpoints in the room.

Each Focus Group was facilitated by a member of the Observatory Coordination teams. It was recorded, transcribed, and anonymised.

3) Internal Observatory Workshops: Following the FGDs, 2-hour workshops were held within each Observatory to report back on the findings and conclude the discussions

4) Co-Analysis and Co-Writing: The HSC team and participating Observatory teams engaged in a collaborative process of co-analysis and co-writing. This stage involved synthesizing the findings from the FGDs and workshops, identifying key elements and principles of Humanitarian Justice, and drafting an initial statement

5) Final co-editing of the Istanbul-Bergen Statement: Representatives from all 16 Humanitarian Observatories engaged in a collaborative workshop of around 3.5 hours, where each Observatory presented its feedback on the draft statement, and in some cases proposed alternative framing and/or wording. Proposed alterations were approved by consensus, until a final draft was endorsed by all Observatory Coordination teams

The Humanitarian Observatories are part of the ‘Humanitarian Observatories: Building a Knowledge and Advocacy Network on Humanitarian Governance’ project from February 2025-July 2026. This project has received funding from the European Union under the Horizon ERC Proof of Concept.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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